


Heartless

by Crazy_Pairing_Person



Category: The Haunted Hathaways
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Crying, Death, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, F/M, Falling In Love, Gen, Heavy Angst, Love Confessions, Past Character Death, heart problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:08:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21649579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy_Pairing_Person/pseuds/Crazy_Pairing_Person
Summary: Taylor finds an old bottle of her heart pills, tucked away in a box that she, her mother and her sister never unpacked. It makes her think about two things.One, she should take better care of the heart she's been given. It's not her own, after all.And two, whose heart is beating inside her chest, anyway?
Relationships: Frankie Hathaway & Louie Preston, Frankie Hathaway/Louie Preston, Michelle Hathaway/Ray Preston, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Taylor Hathaway & Frankie Hathaway, Taylor Hathaway & Louie Preston, Taylor Hathaway & Michelle Hathaway, Taylor Hathaway & Ray Preston, Taylor Hathaway/Miles Preston
Kudos: 5





	Heartless

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my good friend for giving me the title to this fic! :D
> 
> This fic is somewhat based on a movie that I watched with my family yesterday... I won't go into details because if I tell you what the movie is it's going to sort of spoil part of the movie.

"Taylor! Dinner's ready!"

The words echoed in Taylor's ears, but she couldn't really hear them. She turned the bottle over and over in her hand, a frown tugging at her lips. She'd found one of the boxes that she and her family had left up in the attic, one of the boxes that they never bothered to unpack, and, out of curiosity from what was inside, had opened it. A few old, dusty scrapbooks had greeted her. Scrapbooks that she barely noticed, because there was this one thing that wasn't a scrapbook.

A bottle of pills. Pills that she'd been prescribed so, so long ago, but was no longer required to take. Why had her mother taken them to New Orleans?

"I know she must worry, but... I don't need these anymore," she said to the empty room. "The doctor said so. As long as I eat... Healthy..."

She trailed off. She didn't really eat all that healthily. But she got lots of exercise!

...Which probably wasn't a good thing. The doctor had said that rest was good for her. Not doing backflips.

Yeah, maybe that was why her mother had taken the pills.

Taylor sighed shakily, and returned the pills to the box.

"Taylor! Dinner!"

"I'm coming!"

Taylor headed down into the dining room, and put on a false smile as she came into view of her mom, her sister, Ray, Miles and Louie.

"There you are," her mother said. "Where were you?"

"Oh... Nowhere," she said awkwardly, taking a seat next to Miles.

"How can you be nowhere? You have to have been somewhere," Louie pointed out. "Unless you've figured out how to turn invisible... Which you haven't, because I haven't figured that out!"

Ray, Miles and Taylor all gave Louie their best unimpressed expressions. Louie blinked, and shrank down in his seat.

"Well, you're here now," Michelle said, placing Taylor's plate down in front of her. "I didn't feel like cooking, so I got fried chicken for dinner."

Taylor looked down at the thigh that was placed in front of her with some sort of dread. She gave an awkward smile, and pushed the plate away from herself. "Uh, no thanks, Mom. I don't think I should eat fried food anymore."

Michelle jerked back. Frankie reached across the table and tried to take away Taylor's thigh, but Michelle swatted her hand away before turning to Taylor with a frown. "What? Why? Are you on a diet or something? I wish you'd told me beforehand, darling, I'd have gotten grilled chicken instead!"

"What?! She deprives herself so we have to suffer?!" Frankie cried out.

"No, Mom, I'm not on a diet or anything," Taylor said. "I mean, I'm not trying to lose weight, so... I don't think you can call it a diet."

"Then why don't you want fried food?" Ray asked.

Taylor hesitated, then looked up at Michelle. "I... Saw that you brought my pills to New Orleans, Mom."

Michelle and Frankie both froze, eyes going wide and faces losing all color. Ray, Miles and Louie looked at each other in confusion.

"It got me thinking that I don't really do anything that I was told to do by the doctor," Taylor said, toying with her napkin. "I don't get a lot of rest, because I'm always practicing my gymnastics. I don't eat very healthy food, either. The only thing I do is I don't drink alcohol, but that's because I'm underage." She sighed. "I think I should start taking better care of myself."

Michelle smiled softly, and reached out, placing her hand on Taylor's shoulder. "Thank you, sweetie. I... I never said anything, but... I've always been so worried..." She sighed, and gave the fried chicken thigh on Taylor's plate to Frankie. "Here. Eat some corn. That's good for you! I think... And we'll go out and buy some healthy food for you tomorrow, too."

Taylor giggled and accepted the corn. But before she could eat, Ray spoke. "Uh, sorry, but... What's going on? I feel like we're missing something."

Taylor bit her lip, and looked helplessly to Michelle. Michelle shrugged. "It's your choice whether you want to tell them or not, sweetie."

After a moment of thought, Taylor sighed and nodded to herself, then looked at the ghosts. She didn't speak for a minute, toying with the bracelet that sat on her wrist. "When I was little... I had a heart problem."

The air became tense with that sentence alone. The males all straightened in their seats, watching Taylor with rapt attention.

"The doctors always said I was lucky to survive as long as I did, waiting for a transplant. They actually had to get the heart from here in New Orleans because there wasn't one they could use in New York - all the ones they had were already reserved for other patients." She sighed shakily, and turned her gaze down to her plate as she felt tears starting to build in her eyes. "And before I got the transplant, I was on these pills. I don't have to take them anymore but Mom kept them around, I guess - just in case. And I was told to take care of my heart - eat healthy food, don't overexert myself, no alcohol once I'm old enough, try not to get stressed..." She smiled sadly. "I guess I didn't do too good of a job listening, though."

The room was silent. Seconds, minutes, maybe even hours passed.

"How old were you?" Ray eventually asked.

"Eight," Taylor whispered immediately.

Another silence fell. Frankie stood up from her seat and walked around the table to give her sister a hug. Taylor accepted it, hiding her tearful face in Frankie's shoulder.

Eventually, they finally got around to eating in silence.


End file.
